Developer Diaries

The Outfit Dev Diary #1

"Pimp My Tank" -- Relic's art director Andy Lang introduces us to some of the big bad machines from The Outfit.

"Make the tank's paint schemes look more like something Chip Foose would do." This is what Adrian Crook told to me when I joined The Outfit team as Art Director. The team had this idea where vehicles in multiplayer would sport tricked out paint jobs. I was like cool then left the subject alone hoping it would disappear since there was so much else that had to be done. As summer came to an end, The Outfit was shaping up to be a very different interpretation of a WWII shooter. Really it's an action/strategy shooter that just happens to be set in 1944. The Outfit had this action hero attitude that began to find its way into other areas of the game. Like the metal-laced theme music found in the front end. So a tank rocking a trick paint job didn't seem out of place. In fact, it fit perfectly in the crazy multiplayer experience that turned out to be The Outfit.

The paint schemes don't have any game mechanics behind them. They are decorative much like changing your character's costume in a fighting game. It's something that is fun to do but doesn't change the game mechanic. Every vehicle functions the way it did when it had standard paint. What is fun though, is that as a player you know whose vehicle or emplacement you've taken. There's nothing worse then being killed by a vehicle that you purchased but there's nothing betting then killing someone using their own vehicle.

The customization in The Outfit is easy. The player has the option to select one of 13 decals sets. The decal artwork replaces the single player Allied and Axis markings on vehicles. For example a swastika on a Panther tank becomes a cute bunny if the decal set "Fluffy Bunny" is selected. A decal set also has a signature vehicle associated with it. In "Fluffy Bunny's" case the Allied Greyhound turns pink and the Axis Flammpazerwagen is streaked with flowery flames. Each of the 13 decal sets has both Axis and Allied versions.

Before the decal and signature vehicle production began we needed to figure how we were going to implement the system. The Outfit's shader artist Zoe Ananda built a new shader that allowed us to replace both the colour texture map and the Allied and Axis markings with swappable decals. Her shader design was great since it allowed us to customize the vehicle's entire texture. With the technology being complete I didn't know how cool the signature vehicles were going to look till we laid out the first design.

Jeff Brown, The Outfit's Design Director, suggested that one of the designs could be called "The Judge". Like a GTO Judge! I think it was right then that I understood what a signature vehicle would look like. I could clearly see an American muscle paint job on WWII American muscle. I over-painted a screenshot of a Sherman tank with the orange and black racing stripes similar to those on a GTO Judge. I totally loved the way it looked! An orange tank is so freak'n bold and everyone who I showed the design to dug it. I put together four more designs before production begun. This included "Death From Above" which was inspired by the Japanese Imperial Flag, "Bomb Shell" which was inspired by WW2 bomber nose art and "Disgruntled Bunny" which was an aborted attempt at the "Fluffy Bunny" idea. The remaining designs were then produced by various members of the art team for a total of 26 unique vehicles across 13 unique decals sets.

Everything involved with the decal sets turned out really well. The Foose comment was an interesting starting point. Even though none of the signature vehicles have Foose's signature look, the comment still opened my mind to using anachronistic influences. Who would have thought that a famous muscle car would get the gears turning and eventually help establish the look and feel of the trick-painted tanks. I think they are really cool and I'm thrilled with the result.